If only we had some compassion

My grandmother often used to say, “If you want to know how compassionate someone is, see how they treat animals.” Obviously this is not her saying but one she embraced. She taught us love, more so towards animals than anything else. I now realise why — if you like animals, which are considered as ‘lesser beings’ than humans (although certain humans often make us contest this), you are more likely to love and appreciate mankind.

We rarely see love for animals in our society – whether it is donkeys pulling carts, being whipped by their owners or stray dogs on the street. You often notice splattered bodies of cats crushed under speeding cars and no one ever clears the mess except some birds, an example of animals cleaning the mess that humans have created. You see kids throw stones at stray dogs. Then there is the crime of clipping sparrows’ wings and putting them in claustrophobic nets to be sold to some generous man who is going to set them free at the cost of a few rupees. They are free only until your car stays at the signal; as soon as you drive off the man who sold them to you promising ‘freedom’ to the birds will cage them again in a horrible, small net. They cannot take flight.

I know one of my friends used to do a show for a local television channel on animals and she had great love for them, as many individuals do. But as a society, I don’t think we have compassion for animals, because if we did, the treatment of these animals would be different. If you look at recent events, from the lack of aid given for flood relief to the crowd that witnessed the Sialkot lynching but did nothing, you will find one commonality and that is sheer lack of compassion. Everything stems from this deficiency. Compassion is the basis of humanity and we must understand that it is two-way traffic. You have to respect to be respected, tolerant to be tolerated and show compassion to gain it for yourself. This is just how it works.

If we had collective compassion, things would not have been so bad. If we had compassion, we would have a single education system for everyone, equal opportunity, less poverty and hunger, an efficient justice system, good healthcare and, above all, great governance. People wouldn’t send their kids to expensive schools when they know that others cannot afford to even study, they wouldn’t fill their stomachs when others sleeps hungry. We are all included in this as we are all accustomed to this system where everybody is happy as long as their own needs are met, by hook or by crook. And we say it’s human nature.

When people don’t get their rights they will fight for them, when they won’t get food they will snatch it from others, when they don’t get justice they will take the law in their hands, when they don’t get good education they will turn into thieves, dacoits, murderers, lynch mobs. That’s also human nature.

Just because other societies are behaving inhumanely doesn’t give you the right to do so. It should, however, help you in correcting yourself instead of being defensive and living in a fool’s paradise.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 25^th, 2010.